Robin Rosenberg Fine Art, Author at Robin Rosenberg Fine Art

Happy Valentine’s Day from RRFA

We hope these artworks make your HeARTs happy!

If any of these artworks or artists are of interest, please contact us.

Damien Hirst series (Source: Architectural Digest)

Paul Solberg, Spell, 2016, archival pigment inks with flocking, edition of 35, 45 x 30 inches

Polly Apfelbaum, There Are Many Hearts 3, 2020, woodblock monoprint, 14 x 14 inches

Jim Dine, Poem on Main Street, 2017, edition of 4, 52.5 x 39 inches

Marilyn Minter, Prism, 2009, photograph, edition of 27, 20 x 16 inches

Donald Baechler, Brown Rose, 2015, silkscreen, edition of 35, 40 x 31 inches

Veering Virtual

Artworld Year in Review

Virtual viewing room, Frieze Art Fair 2020

2020 is a year that reshaped nearly all spheres of activity on a global scale – the artworld being no exception. Despite gallery closures and fair cancellations, the artworld has managed to persist through the pandemic, demonstrating a strong and resilient market.

With access to brick and mortar denied, the artworld largely moved online where virtual viewing rooms have become a staple. Even with the lack of hustle and bustle and the throngs of elite that usually pervade art fair convention centres, gallerists from major art fairs are touting strong sales from their online efforts. Similarly, auction houses acted swiftly to move their art auctions exclusively virtual with equally successful outcomes. Sotheby’s has reported global sales of over 5 billion for the year 2020, an increase from their 2019 of 4.8 billion.

El Anatsui, Metas III, 2014 – Sold for $1.5 million at Frieze Art Fair 2020

A Note from RRFA: COVID-19
Thinking Outside the Box
Art in Full Bloom

The industry’s successful launch into the virtual sphere during this unprecedented year is an indication that buyers are still actively investing in art and that they are comfortable purchasing artwork sight unseen. When presented with quality art from trusted sources, the pandemic has proven not to be a roadblock for art collectors, investors, and dealers.

If you are looking to add to your collection, invest in fine art, or sell art, or if you need an art consultant or appraiser, contact Robin Rosenberg Fine Art!

Roy Lichtenstein, Nude with Joyous Painting, 1994, Sold at Christie’s New York for $46.2 million in July 2020

Hans Jean Arp

Jean (Hans) Arp was a French / German sculptor, painter, and poet. His work and artistic voice were deeply influential in creating both the Dada and Surrealist movements. He is well known for his biomorphic sculptures, which are described as ‘organic abstraction.’ These sculptures are abstract and non-representational, yet suggest natural motifs such as transformation, metamorphosis, and growth which are common themes within Arp’s art practice.

Arp was born in 1886, in Alsace which is a French town bordering Germany. Arp referred to himself as ‘Jean’ when speaking French, and as ‘Hans’ when speaking German. In 1911, Arp helped establish the first modern art alliance, Der Moderne Bund, thus interacting with artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso. During World War I, Arp fled the horrors and dangers of war by going to Zurich, Switzerland, where he consequently helped found the Avant-Garde Dada Movement, which aimed to create chaos, while focusing on work that was both interdisciplinary and international.

In 1925, Arp helped form a new major art movement: Surrealism. His work was shown at the first Surrealist exhibition at Galerie Pierre, in Paris, alongside Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Man Ray, and Joan Miro, among others. He experienced extreme commercial success, which continued into the 1930s. His sculptures, in particular, gained much attention, following the 1937 exhibition at the Museum Of Modern Art, New York.

Today Arp’s work can be found in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.

american

Making a Splash!

Soaking Up the Last Days of Summer

David Hilliard, He Said, She Said, 2005, three-panel archival pigment print, 24 x 60 or 40 x 90 inches.

Before the inevitable change of seasons, Robin Rosenberg Fine Art would like to celebrate the last few weeks of summer by sharing some works by artists who are making a splash. Whenever you’re ready to dive into art collecting, please be sure to contact us here.

Art in Full Bloom
Spring Cleaning: Art Edition
Celebrating Black Artists

Joan Brown, The Bicentennial Champion, 1976, enamel on canvas, 96 x 78 inches.

Massimo Vitali, #2303 Coney Es, 2006, lightjet print from negative scan on photographic paper on diasec with wooden frame, 35 2/5 x 43 3/10 inches, Edition 35 of 35 + 4AP.

Carole A. Feuerman, Miniature Brooke with Beach Ball, 2018, mixed media with resin, Edition 14/38, 12 x 16 x 12 inches.

Hiejin Yoo, Doing Our Favorites, 2018, flashe and oil on canvas, 30 x 28 inches.

Vivian Maier, 0119304 1963 Kids Digging For Clams, 2017,modern gelatin silver print, 12 x 12 inches.

My Kid Could Do That!

There is more to art than meets the eye

Cy Tombly, Untitled, 1954, mixed media on paper, 19 x 25 inches. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Most art enthusiasts have been confronted, at one time or another, with a friend or family member’s derisive reaction to a piece of Modern or Contemporary art; “I could do that” or, “my kid could do that”. Disregarding the fact that even minimalist artwork takes more time, effort and technical prowess than most take into consideration, even if you or your child sincerely could produce an artwork in question, this reaction still proves to be a rather unhelpful response to art.

Barnett Newman, Voice of Fire, 1967, 213 x 94 inches, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

People tend to overlook the fact that an artwork’s significance is not exclusively limited to its visual properties. Any Art History 101 class will repeatedly emphasize the importance of art’s contextual aspects. Artists are influenced by their socio-political and personal realities and, therefore, their artwork is inextricably linked to various situational circumstances. As an onlooker, you, nor your offspring, share the personal motivations or particular social realities that the artist experienced and, therefore, could not have been a position to produce the same artwork they did.

Conceptual Art: What is it?
Thinking Outside the Box
The Rise of Graffiti and Street ArtThe Rise of Graffiti and Street Art

It is also important to consider conceptual art which, as its name aptly implies, involves an artwork being used as a vehicle through which a concept or idea is manifested. An artist’s goal is not always to impress viewers with their incredible craftsmanship, but can be to convey a message or elicit a response.

Alexander Calder, Mond und Stern, 1965, Lithograph, 30 x 22 inches. Edition of 100.

So, the next time you find yourself in the presence of an artwork that does not impress you aesthetically, fight the urge to shrug it off. Investigate further, read a gallery wall label or do a quick google search so you can learn about the artist’s background and get a better sense of the ‘why’ as opposed to solely the ‘what’ in terms of the art they produce.

Celebrating Black Artists

Transforming the system, one art piece at a time

Hank Willis Thomas, Raise Up, 2014, bronze, 112 1/5 × 9 4/5 × 3 9/10 inches, edition of 5.

All over the world, people are protesting the ongoing oppression and brutality Black people experience. Our current global situation is encouraging all demographics to re-examine their actions, words and privileges in order to better support Black voices and communities in hopes of overcoming racial injustice.

The art world is certainly not exempt from this fight. The canon of Art History overwhelmingly favours white male artists. As an art firm, we feel it is our responsibility to contribute to changing this damaging narrative by using our platform to both acknowledge the exclusionary nature of our industry and help overcome it by continuously touting our support for and recognition of talented Black artists.

Amy Sherald, First Lady Michelle Obama, 2018, oil paint on linen, 72 x 61 inches, National Portrait Gallery.

We would like to shine a spotlight on several contemporary Black artists whose respective artistic practices engage with and challenge ideas concerning racial stereotypes and forms of representation as well as systemic oppression.

Amy Sherald made waves in recent years as the artist behind First Lady Michelle Obama’s revered official portrait. Her work primarily focuses on realism and portraiture, depicting Black subjects. She engages with African American storytelling and raises questions concerning skin colour, exhibited through her poignant choice to use grey shades for skin in her portraits.

Installation photo from Kara Walker’s Narratives of a Negress at the Tang Teaching Museum, 2003.

Kara Walker is a multidisciplinary artist based in the United States. She is most well-known for her work using large scale black cut paper silhouettes as well as her sculptures made from the unique material, sugar. Walker’s oeuvre engages with the history of slavery along with race, gender, violence, identity and the Black experience of both the past and present.

What’s Love Got to Do With It?
Kehinde Wiley: Maker of Modern Royalty
ARTspiration: Appropriation in Art

Installation photo from Nick Cave’s Here Hear exhibition at the Cranbrook Art Museum, 2015.

Nick Cave is a sculptor, dancer and performance artist, internationally celebrated for his Soundsuits. These sculptures are wearable, surreal works that are inspired by the history of racial violence in the United States. They are vehicles of empowerment as their outward representations obscure visible markers of race, gender and class.

We welcome you to continue to engage with the work of Black artists by clicking on the images featured throughout this blog post.

Selected work by artists included are available through Robin Rosenberg Fine Art. For details, please contact us here.

Thinking Outside the Box

Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain.

Celebrating International Museum Day

When visiting an art museum, we expect to encounter art within its walls. Focusing our attention solely on a museum’s collection, however, one fails to acknowledge the fact that museum edifices themselves are often artistic masterpieces in their own right. Museums are dynamic structures that are built with innovative materials and boast striking designs and powerful shapes. To celebrate International Museum Day, we are highlighting only a handful of the many museums whose architectural components are as noteworthy as the artworks housed within.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, United States of America.

New York City’s iconic Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum comes to mind when contemplating noteworthy museum architecture. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the unique winding structure is nestled within its largely linear cityscape. It has clean, fluid lines, curving, spiraling walls, and a smooth exterior texture free of visible windows. In both its form and concept, the Guggenheim offers unique viewing experiences and its sculptural brilliance renders it a noteworthy art piece in and of itself.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is one of the most admired buildings in contemporary architecture. Characterized by its structural ingenuity and appeal, the museum was designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry. The museum is situated in Bilbao’s port area on the Nervion River. Gehry’s extensive use of titanium and glass and his use of dramatic and exaggerated curves and shapes offer a modern cutting-edge style that resembles a boat. The surface of the building mimics rippling water, as light catches and refracts along with the curved titanium. Gehry illustrates the creative potential of harmonizing both natural and industrial surroundings in order to create a structure that is both complex and dynamic.

Check-in and Check-out the Art!
Alexander Calder: Radical Inventor
Conceptual Art: What is it?

Zaha Hadid was a British-Iraqi architect who is internationally renowned for her boundary-pushing designs, particularly for museums and art galleries. Her futuristic aesthetic is evidenced by her predilection for glass and metallic materials as well as her bold and dynamic shapes. Her construction of the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, in Baku, Azerbaijan is celebrated for its ground-breaking employment of sweeping fluid curves, and rounded lines built to reflect the building’s natural surroundings.

Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Alivey Cultural Center, Baku, Azerbaijan.

The next time you visit an art museum, be sure not only to admire the artwork inside but also the exterior and structural components of the building as well!

While we are currently unable to visit museums in person, many are offering virtual tours online. Please feel free to explore museum collections in the comfort of your own home with the provided links throughout the article.

Art in Full Bloom

Installation view of Hilma af Klint’s “The Ten Largest” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

The unique beauty of flowers unconventionally rendered

The arrival of springtime ushers in warmer weather, promising a rebirth after the long winter months. Although this year looks a little different and we are forced to remain in hibernation mode, the birds will not cease to chirp nor the flowers to bloom. To celebrate this time of year, we highlight two prominent early 20th century female artists who embrace flowers as subjects in their work, Georgia O’Keefe and Hilma af Klint.

Both women were part of a radical subset of artists who rejected the formal teachings of painting and experimented with a new kind of abstraction by creating art that did not reflect subjects as they appeared in the real world.

Hilma af Klint’s botanicals are totally untethered to the physical world as they appear to spiritually dance and float across the picture plane, as opposed to traditional realistic renderings of florals typically portrayed in vases or in a garden setting. Af Klint’s flowers can be described as ethereal, futuristic and symbolic.

(Left) Georgia O’Keeffe, Pink Tulip, 1926 (Right) Georgia O’Keeffe, Red Canna, 1924, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

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Celebrating Two Iconic Female Artists: Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger
Spring Cleaning: Art Edition

O’Keeffe’s compositions also deviate from realism, as her overly magnified depictions of flowers render them virtually unrecognizable as such, or as any physical object for that matter. Ironically, her paintings are so detail-oriented that her illustrations served as resources to botanical scientists.

In their own unique styles, expressions, and interpretations of the same subject matter, both artists significantly contributed to a new era of abstraction that reframes and distorts the beauty of organic life.

While we patiently await springtime’s full bloom, we hope that you enjoy these floral oeuvres. The Robin Rosenberg Fine Art team hopes that you are healthy and that you take the time to celebrate spring!

Hilma af Klint, detail of Group IV, no 2. The Ten Largest, Youth.

A Note from RRFA: COVID-19

Richard Prince, Park Avenue Nurse, 2002, inkjet print and acrylic on canvas, 72 x 45 inches.

The RRFA team will continue to work on our projects, but will do so remotely.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We would like to take a moment to wish communities worldwide the utmost health and safety during these precarious times. As we are all aware, COVID-19 has developed rapidly over the past couple of weeks and the gravity of the situation has called for self-isolation. With several projects underway, we feel it is prudent and respectful to continue working remotely.

The Art Antidote: Art Therapy
Going Green: Environmentally Conscious Artists
Spring Cleaning: Art Edition

Without making light of the situation, we present Richard Prince’s Park Avenue Nurse in honour of all the courageous healthcare professionals (like Robin’s sister), along with the other heroes who have been working tirelessly on the frontlines. This includes the grocery workers, taxi and bus drivers, food inspectors, law enforcement, among many others.

Stay well and stay home,

Team RRFA

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1991, 14 x 28 x 2.75 inches, MoMA

Love expressed through art in unexpectedly poignant ways

Love is a universal theme that has been explored in art since antiquity. Contemporary artistic representations of love are not always easy to decipher so to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, we are delving into several pieces that touch on this multifaceted emotion in unexpectedly poignant ways.

Felix Gonzales-Torres’ conceptual piece, Untitled (Perfect Lovers) explores the act of being in love as well as love’s imperfect nature. Two clocks placed side-by-side work in perfect synchronization and their continuous ticking represents a shared heartbeat. Slowly over time, they fall out of sync and, eventually, their batteries die before being re-set to begin the process once again. Torres’ work metaphorically represents his own personal relationship with his partner who tragically died of AIDS. The clocks speak to the harrowing feeling of running out of time. The gradual falling out of sequence, and ultimate malfunction evokes devastating loss.

Valentine’s Day: Artists in Love
Let There Be Light! James Turrell & Ellsworth Kelly
Conceptual Art: What is it?

John Baldessari, Valentine, 2015, 38 × 34 inches, edition of 50

In John Baldessari’s 2015 screenprint Valentine, the artist inscribes an arrow on a pre-existing fashion photograph of supermodel Kendall Jenner. The arrow represents Cupid’s signature accessory that the fictitious character uses to strike people and, in turn, makes them fall in love unexpectedly. Baldessari’s graffiti is at once playful and strategic, as the arrow strikes through Jenner’s bodice that is contoured by her garment’s neckline in a way that makes it resemble a heart shape.

Louise Bourgeois, 10 am is When You Come to Me, 2008, 98 x 108 inches, Tate Museum

Louise Bourgeois’ piece, 10 AM is When You Come to Me, portrays a series of hands rendered in different tones of red that are continuously reaching towards each other in space. The hands belong to Bourgeois and her assistant Jerry Gorovoy, whom she trusted and loved deeply. The colour red evokes the warmth, passion and emotional intensity of their love. The piece’s title refers to the time of the morning when Gorovoy would arrive at the artist’s studio to commence their workday together.

Unlike artworks such as Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture The Kiss, Robert Indiana’s widely recognized pop LOVE images or Jim Dine’s signature hearts, the pieces discussed evoke the theme of love in more conceptual and obscure ways that may take a bit more time and effort to fully comprehend.